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From
<a href="http://revach.net/article.php?id=36" eudora="autourl">
http://revach.net/article.php?id=36<br><br>
</a><font size=3>Chasam Sofer: Why Don't Women Wear Tefilin?<br><br>
The Torah says that Tefilin remind us that Hashem took us out of
Mitzrayim. If so women should also wear Tefilin even if the mitzva
is time dependant because <i>"Af hem hayu b'oso hanes"</i>,
they were also part of Yetzias Mitzrayim. This same principal is
used to obligate women in other mitzvos that they would otherwise be
exempt from. <br><br>
The Chasam Sofer answers that we must distinguish between Matza for
example, where the underlying reason for the mitzva is to remember
Yetzias Mitzrayim, and Tefilin where the underlying reason is to show our
love for Hashem by wearing His signature on us. As a natural
consequence of our thinking about our love for Hashem we remember how he
took us out of Mitzrayim in grand fashion. However this is only an
outgrowth of the main reason. Since the main reason is not Yetzias
Mitzrayim, this secondary reason does not obligate a women in the mitzva
of Tefilin. <br>
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I must say that I do not understand the reasoning in the above. If
"the underlying reason is to show our love for Hashem by wearing His
signature on us." then, given that men already have Ha Shem's
"signature" on them through their bris milah, it would seem to
me that this is a reason for women to wear tefilin to show their love for
Hashem and not men. <br><br>
YL<br>
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